In this lesson,
we'll discuss change management.
Now in our modern business environments,
we cannot help but to encounter changes in our daily work.
Whether it's introducing new software into our systems
or implementing a new organizational structure
across your corporate network, change is both inescapable
and a necessity for your organization
to be able to continually adapt to our ever-changing needs
inside of our businesses.
But implementing these changes requires precision,
planning, and a structured approach
to avoid creating outages and other significant issues
for your end users.
Now to help control these changes, we often rely
on change management policies and procedures.
Change management is the orchestrated strategy
to transition teams, departments,
or entire organizations from their existing state
to a more desirable future state.
Now, this is pivotal in our organization's operations
because we need to ensure changes are properly controlled
and implemented using a plan.
Otherwise, chaos will occur.
Now, if a change is not properly planned and coordinated,
your employees could resist or even fear that given change.
For example, if you're going to migrate your entire workforce
from an older version of Microsoft Office
to a newer version, this may not seem like such a big deal
if you have a very technologically literate workforce.
But I can tell you from personal experience
that even moving from something as simple
as going from one legacy version of Microsoft Office
to something like Microsoft Office 365
can really create a lot of confusion
for your less technologically savvy users,
and this will generate an enormous amount of calls
to your support desk if you don't have a solid plan in place
to train all of your users before, during,
and after that change is being implemented.
Now, really at the core of this issue
is that our existing processes
will become disrupted by any kind of change.
And these processes are the things that ensure our company
is functioning efficiently and effectively.
But by implementing change management,
we can ensure that regardless of how large
or small the adjustment that's being introduced
into your organization is,
that it actually will be become seamlessly integrated
into your existing architecture and processes
so that we can maximize the positive outcomes
that we're seeking to achieve
while minimizing any potential disruption.
Now, for a change to occur,
that change must first be approved.
Each organization will create its own processes
and procedures for the approval of changes
inside of your change management process.
But it is important to remember that you can't simply decide
to install a piece of software
or change a given configuration on a system
without going through an appropriate approval process.
Additionally, before that change gets approved,
it needs to undergo an assessment process
to determine if the change will add value
to the organization or if it can be implemented successfully
with minimal disruptions
to your business's current operations.
So who is able to approve a change
within a given organization?
Well, usually, this function will be performed
by the CAB, which is the change advisory board.
Now, your change advisory board,
or CAB, also known as the CAB,
it's going to be a body of representatives
from various parts of your organization
that all play a crucial role in evaluating the ramifications
of any proposed changes.
Now, this change advisory board is really focused
on conducting the due diligence on a proposed change
before it's approved and scheduled for implementation.
The change advisory board is responsible for assessing
the viability of the change, its potential impacts,
and whether or not it aligns
with the organization's broader objectives.
Now, every proposed change should have a change owner.
The change owner is an individual
or sometimes a team of people that's going to be responsible
for the initiation of the change request.
This owner is going to be the advocate for the change,
and they're going to be the ones who detail the reasons
why that change is necessary, its potential benefits
and the challenges that that change might present
during its implementation.
Now, these changes will not happen in isolation.
After all, we're going to be making a configuration change,
installing a new piece of hardware,
or running some kind of software on our organization systems.
And all of these actions will have an impact
not just on the server or workstation
that's being configured,
but also all across your entire enterprise network.
Now, each change will affect or are affected
by a myriad of other factors within your organization.
So to help understand the impact and effect
that change is going to have on your business operations,
it's really important that you know
who the crucial stakeholders are.
Now, a stakeholder is any person
who has a vested interest in the proposed change.
The stakeholder may have a vested interest
because they're directly impacted by the proposed change
or because they have a role
in its assessment or implementation.
These individuals or teams must be consulted
and their feedback considered
as well as their concerns getting addressed
before you implement a change.
For example, if I want to perform a software update
on our practice exam engine at diontraining.com,
technically, there is nothing that's going to stop me
from pushing out that update to the code
right now as I'm talking to you
without asking anybody else's permission.
But that's probably not a good idea
because there are a lot of stakeholders
that will be affected by me implementing that change.
Let's pretend that when I push out the software update
to my server, it's going to require us to reboot that server,
which will have that change to be able to take effect.
But that reboot may take about five minutes to occur.
And that means that none of our students around the world
will be able to take a practice exam
during that five minutes of downtime
while that server is being rebooted.
Similarly, if I push out a new feature
as part of that update, we need to actually train
our end users, which in this case would be our students,
on how to use those new features.
Similarly, we're also going to need to consult
with our student support team to ensure that they know
how to answer any potential questions that might arise
because of this software update.
And we may need to send out a message ahead of time
to warn all of our students that our system
is going to be updated on a certain day and time,
and that there's going to be a potential downtime
of up to five minutes during that window.
As you can see, there are going to be technical stakeholders,
like the developers who run the servers and write the code.
There's also going to be business stakeholders
like our student support team.
And we also have end user-based stakeholders
like our students in this example.
And all of these need to be either consulted or informed
of this upcoming software change to our practice exam engine
before we make that change.
Now, an integral part of the change management process
is the impact analysis.
Before setting all the wheels of change in motion
on any proposed change, you really do need to understand
the potential fallout.
You need to ask yourself, what could go wrong?
And if that happened, what would be the immediate effects
to our organization, its business processes,
its reputation, and its users?
How will our long-term operations be impacted?
Are there any unforeseen challenges lurking in the shadows
that might cause an issue for us?
All of these are things that we're going to do
during our impact analysis.
And by conducting that impact analysis,
we're going to try to answer all these questions
so our organization is not just prepared
for the proposed change, but also,
they're poised to be able to maximize the benefits
of that given change.
So remember, change management
is not merely a corporate buzzword,
but it really is a critical process that can help guide you
and your organization safely through any potential changes
or transformations that you need for your business.
While all of our organizations want to improve themself
and progress over time, it is the implementation
of structured changes through the proper assessment
and collaborative decision-making process
that's led by your change advisory board
that really is at the center of every change
that we're going to try to implement in our organizations.
Through the diligent application
of these change management principles,
organizations can not only adapt but thrive.
And all the while, they'll be able to turn challenges
into opportunities and uncertainties
surrounding a proposed change
into a defined pathway forward.